Why needle of suspicion always points towards Muslims alone?

Hyderabad: The inexplicable ambience of hate against Muslims is today a fact of our national life. The most noteworthy factor that has created an anti-Muslim atmosphere is the Saffron-inspired mass Muslim arrests in various terrorist activities. Be it Maharashtra or Andhra, everywhere Muslim is the suspect-youth. Take the latest reports from Hyderabad. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday busted a suspected ISIS terror module and detained 11 people for questioning. NIA claims that the arrests were made on the basis of concrete evidences. If some youth are really a part of anti-national activities, then there is no objection over the legal action taken against them but the way in which the NIA took action and the items produced to support their claim have raised several questions.

By conducting raids on more than one place simultaneously, NIA has tried to give the impression that Hyderabad is the hub of ISIS agents and its sympathizers. The story presented by the NIA in support of the arrests is not different from the story presented in the past at the time of such arrests. It was alleged that the youth were planning strikes on multiple targets in the city, including places of worship of a particular community. The allegations have no congruence with the items seized. It was alleged that the suspects scouted for hideouts nearby Hyderabad for assembling the bombs and also for safe shelter after committing the bomb attack. But the seized items do not support such allegations.

Any matter related to the safety of the country cannot be comprised however all the principles of justice should be taken into consideration. Investigative agencies must make it a point that it is better that 100 guilty go free, rather than 1 innocent be convicted. It is not out of place to mention here that the persons arrested belonged to a particular school of thought and recently the group had internal clashes. It is also believed that the police was misled in retaliation. Observers feel that ISIS have no interest in India nor they have any enmity towards the country as India is not a part of coalition against ISIS. In this scenario ISIS activities in India are illogical and incomprehensible. Moreover Home Minister Rajnath Singh had recently claimed that terror outfit ISIS has completely failed to attract Indian Muslims into its fold as the community is fully integrated into the mainstream.

Whichever party is at power at the centre the mentality of investigative agencies never changes. Pointing the needle of suspicion towards Muslims is the legacy of investigative agencies. The draconian laws like TADA and POTA were used against Muslims. Muslims were always on the hit lists in the name of ISI, Lashkar-e-Toiba, Indian Mujahidin, Harkatul Jihad Islami, Alqaeda and the very recent ISIS. Why are Muslims the most vulnerable lot? Muslims were implicated in Makkah Masjid, Ajmer and other blasts but later it was found that the attacks were perpetrated by saffron terrorists. As far as the issue of youth coming in contact with groups like ISIS through social media is concerned, they can be counseled and persuaded instead of implicating them in serious cases. There had been cases in the past where youth joining ISIS were counseled and handed over to their family but in the recent case NIA didn’t bothered about their future and levied serious charges against the youth. They were accused of planning a bomb blast but no explosive were recovered from their possession, only items of domestic use were seized.

It was alleged that the youth plotted to plant beef in temple and spark riots during Ramadan. But the allegations could be the part of beef politics continued in the country to consolidate BJP vote bank. After Karnataka BJP is trying to gain a strong foothold in Telangana. NIA is a national investigative agency it should not fall prey to any political conspiracy.